STREAMS OF WATER

One of the questions I get as an artist is, “How do you get your ideas for the paintings you do?” The answer for me is rather complex. I may see an old photograph and there is an immediate response within me. I know I just HAVE to paint what I am seeing. Most of the time I do not know why I want to paint the photograph; but the understanding always comes later while I am painting. Painting in oil is such a slow process. There is a lot of time to think and feel my subject. I have chosen the painting titled “Streams of Water” for discussion in my first blog, because unlike many of my other paintings, it was a long work in its original inception, not something I saw and then painted, rather it was something conceived first, then put together by degrees.

I found an old black and white photo of a Maricopa woman getting water from a stream. I loved the bank behind her, the gentle turn of the water beneath. The woman, however, was not usable. I painted the background and left it for many many months until one day perusing and old national geographic I saw the perfect girl. She was picking coffee, but her head and hair were just what I was looking for. I used the general posture, drawing in the hands, body and clothing. She did turn out rather generic, without any particular clue to what kind of Indian she might be. However, I felt the painting as a whole had a soft and gentle quality, one that lent itself to a feeling of serenity. The blues, purple and greens give it a lovely coolness.

There is a wonderful passage in the Bible that came to mind after I finished this painting. It is found in the book of Isaiah, which for me is one of the most mysterious and remarkable books in the Bible. It says, “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.”

I have never felt parched with thirst. Extreme thirst is not something many of us have ever experienced. When I read that passage, the thought came to me, “Why would a loving God allow somebody to get that thirsty?” Have you ever been desperate for something, so desperate you felt like you would do just about anything to solve your problem? I remember a man who told me that when he was flat on his back after a car accident, he thought to call on God, but he decided he wouldn't call on God when he was helpless – lying on his back. You know, he never did call on God. God wants us to call on Him because He has so much to give us, things we cannot get for ourselves and only He can supply.

Those who live out west know how precious water is. Nobody has ever manufactured water. You either have it or you don't. I think that's why God uses it here to illustrate man's absolute need of Him. And God lets people get desperate because for most of us it is the only way we will ever call on Him. But, for those of us who are able to lay aside our pride and cry out, “God! I am so thirsty!” wow! Do we ever get a surprise! He doesn't lead us merely to a stream where we can get a temporary thirst quencher. No, in His magnificent kindness, He transforms our situation, flooding our lives with His goodness; not a temporary cure, but a permanent change in our situation. “I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.”